Wacom eyeing the retail market

Amrita Tejasvi

New Delhi:  While holding a meet with its dealers in the capital for the
first time Wacom, a manufacturer of penabled IT products, put forward its
strategies to invest more in the retail sector and make its products available
on the shelves for channel partners in order to increase its visibility among
the consumers. The company announced that it would provide up to 50 percent
discount on demo products to the dealers and extend more support for developing
demo zones.

While unveiling the strategy, Wacom highlighted that besides resellers and
multi-branded retail outlets, the company would provide its products to channel
partners of Apple because the product is also targeted towards graphics and
animation market.

With the objective to strengthen its position in the market, the company has
planned to double the number of channel partners from 60 to 120 within six
months. The company has also decided to open ten demo centers in each of the top
seven cities that include New Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Bangalore,
Ahmedabad and Hyderabad within six months of time frame.

"The idea behind this strategy is to make the product as well as the
brand get recognition among the consumers. Indian market is not as strong as
those compared to US, Japan and Europe in terms of penabled technology so we
want to strengthen it. We want the visiting customers to see the products and
enquire about it. For that, it is essential that the products are showcased in a
stylish way," remarked Anil Chandna, Country Representative India, Wacom
Singapore Pte. Ltd.

Commenting on the market position and business opportunities of penabled
technology in India, Sanjay Kathuria, Manager-Channel Sales, Neoteric
Informatique, a distributor of Wacom said that this technology is preferred by
professionals in specific verticals like animation, automotive designing,
fashion designing and other areas where creativity is the core and it is yet to
become a known name among other consumers.

"In the last one year, there has been 108 percent growth in sale of
Wacom products which indicates that this technology is growing rapidly. The
company now wants to make itself more visible and is ready to give all support
to its dealers," informed Nitin Aggarwal, MD, Trifin Information Technology
Pvt. Ltd., another distributor of Wacom in India.